->'''Adam:''' Does this remind you of when you used to count money for the mob?\\'''Jamie:''' I was a hitman. I wasn't the money counter.-->-- ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}''

Sometimes, characters just have over-complicated origins. They may start off reasonable, but slowly and surely, different writers swoop in and reveal more and more of their past ''via'' FlashBack until it's a confusing muddle of nonsense and clutter.

This tends to happen to characters with a MysteriousPast. The writers explain a bit, but not all of it, so they can milk the Mysterious Past some more. Unfortunately, they then repeat this trick so often that there's practically no room left for even more mysterious-pastness. It's unclear that the character ever had time to have a mysterious past with all the revelations we've already seen; and it's ironic that, for all their supposed mystery, these characters tend to have more backstory than any of the other characters.

In extreme cases, when the bits of the backstory simply cannot be chained together, we get a MultipleChoicePast.

Compare NewJobAsThePlotDemands. BrieferThanTheyThink is a related idea on a much larger scale.

----!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]* Parodied with Ginji in ''Anime/MagicalProjectS'', who is often alluded to having done tons of improbable things and has a wallet full of licenses to prove it.* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', there were no less than ''three'' separate flashbacks for Sasuke to the night Itachi massacred the Uchiha clan. The last one feels tacked on; it would have painted Itachi in a completely different light had it been included in the first place, but Sasuke claimed that he had simply tried to forget those specific memories.** Thought it does answer the continuity error of why Sasuke's [[MagicalEye Sharingan]] was activated by fighting Haku and not [[MindRape Tsukuyomi]] (namely that it ''was'', he just didn't realize it for several years).* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' seems to do this with Asuna after the GenreShift made the story much more dramatic, although there are a few hints in the earlier chapters that imply it was planned all along. To wit: [[spoiler:Negi was ''not'' an IneptMage when he accidentally erased Asuna's clothes. Her AntiMagic aura screwed up the spell.]]* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', the viewer gradually learns more and more details about what happened when the Elric brothers tried to revive their mother with alchemy, especially what's behind the GateOfTruth. The Ishval Rebellion receives this treatment to some degree.* Most incarnations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's Shunsaku Ban. Amusingly, he looks a bit like Jamie Hyneman.* Polar Bear from ''[[Manga/ShirokumaCafe Polar Bear's Cafe]]'' tells a touching story about his reasons for opening the cafe, and then Sasako brings up that he had told her a completely different version of events. He then shrugs and says both versions work. [[OnlySaneMan Penguin]] thinks he's making it all up.* The ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' writers like introducing new elements into Team Rocket's past in any episode centered around them. After 16 years of this, their backstory has become extremely convoluted. One of the characters lived in 4 different regions, flunked out of medical school, was trained in the art of ninjitsu, held a position as a weather forecaster, worked as a professional model, and was in a biker gang at some point. All this was BEFORE becoming an internationally wanted criminal. Oh, and she apparently doesn't know this, but her MissingMom used to be [[TheDragon second in command of Team Rocket]] before [[spoiler:presumably dying on a mission to recover Mew]]. To make matters worse they're in their late teens at earliest, mid twenties at oldest.** Further compounded by the fact that we are repeatedly told that Jessie was dirt-poor growing up, to the point that she had to eat snow to avoid going hungry. Not the standard background for such a dilettante. [[/folder]]

[[folder: Comics]]* The most famous example of this trope is Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, from ''Comicbook/XMen'': He's a soldier, mutant, science experiment, ninja, assassin, SuperHero, miner, aristocrat's son, biker with amnesia.** Extreme example is World War II, where Wolverine starred in different battles, spanning from France, to North Africa, to Russia, to Italy... all the while spending ''months'' being tortured and killed over and over in a concentration camp just to mess with some Nazi's head. Somehow during this period, he managed to also spend the key war years in Japan being trained as a samurai, getting a Japanese wife, and having a son. And you thought that being in X-Force, X-Men and New Avengers, while also going on his solo adventures, was an incredible accomplishment...* Elisa Cameron, the eponymous hero of the comic book ''ComicBook/{{Ghost|DarkHorseComics}}'', has an incredibly convoluted backstory that fits into this trope, although it's all explained, more or less, by the end of the series. The second series, that is, after they canceled the writer of the first 36 shaggy-dog issues and started a new volume at #1. The blinding rate of actual revelations in the second series contrasts with the three-year tease of the first series.* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}, in addition to having a legitimate Expansion Pack Past, also pokes fun at the idea. Among his time with Weapon X, Flirtations with Death (literally), and time with the X-Men, he's done all sorts of wacky oddjobs. This includes being trained as a ''Sumo Wrestler'' (a clear parody of Wolverine's samurai training).* Scrooge [=McDuck=] was neck deep in this until Creator/DonRosa came along and made most of it fit together in a Crowning Moment of ArcWelding. Disney Writers suffering a bad case of AesopAmnesia, the problem's not entirely fixed though (''since'' Don Rosa wrote his "Life and Times of Scrooge [=McDuck=] in which he reunited most facts — though already not all of them —, other writers have added YET MORE BACKSTORY ELEMENTS THAT DON'T EVEN FIT IN ROSA'S TIMELINE). * Also from the ''Comicbook/XMen'', Nightcrawler bears mention. Not only do we learn new things about his background every other week, they blatantly contradict each other. Circus performer with freakish appearance but cheerful outlook. Check. Raised by a Roma witch Margoli Szardos. Check. Girlfriend turns out to be adopted sister and yet they still date. Um...ok. Is revealed to be a devout Catholic. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. Real mother turns out to be Mystique, who threw him over the edge of a waterfall to escape persuers. Not only does that not vibe with the earlier story of Margoli finding him with his dead mother, but she had no way of knowing his father's surname was Wagner. Oh, and his father's an ancient demon. [[FanonDiscontinuity But we don't like to talk about that.]]* When you see this in the X-Men, consider a sign of authorial affection for the character. [[ComicBook/{{Storm}} Ororo/Storm's]] backstory was pretty trippy as well, even before they inserted [[TokenMinorityCouple T'Challa]] in it.* Franchise/{{Batman}} in all of his versions (but mainly the comics) has this for the time between the death of his parents (and sometimes even before) and the first time he put on the cape and cowl.** Especially concerning the events leading up the fateful day they went out to see Zorro. Grant Morrison has it so Bruce's dad decided to have a family day to cheer Bruce up because the kid escaped being decapitated by an immortal, Satan-worshipping school teacher. No, really.** Speaking of Bats, The Joker enjoys the fact his past is, to him contradictory and muddled.* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica's war service between 1940 (yes, his {{Nazi}}-punching days predate the formal entry of the USA in the war) and 1945. He's probably had more adventures in [[UsefulNotes/WW2 World War II]] than there were days in the war; there's a tendency for stories involving him to feature a one or two-page flashback to some World War II event to contrast with whatever's happening in the present. Famous World War II events (D-Day, for example), have been retold frequently with conflicting information about what he was doing then.** His latest series as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch further elaborates Steve's past ''prior'' to becoming Captain America by showing the hardships he and his family had to endure as an immigrant family in an America that was faced with the coming of the Great Depression.** ComicBook/BuckyBarnes has this even more, since he ended up as a brainwashed Soviet assassin that was kept on ice when not on assignment.* ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' did this for Bearclaw, Mantricker and Kahvi. Although most of Bearclaw's stories are pretty solid, Mantricker's timeline is broken beyond all help - and for the family trees to still make sense, some of the later writers literally had to have Kahvi ''fall into a magical plot hole'' for a few thousand years.* In Marvel's ''[[ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel G.I. Joe]]'' comics it got ridiculous how one by one it was revealed that Snake-Eyes had connections to almost every major villain in his past. Trying very hard to make this brief: He served with Storm Shadow in Vietnam. Baroness' brother was also killed in Vietnam while Snake-Eyes was nearby, and she ended up falsely believing he had killed her brother. Destro and his father come to the scene shortly afterwards just as Baroness is leaving, and note that her brother was wearing a bulletproof vest which would have stopped the bullets from Snake-Eyes' pistol. When he returned home, he learned that his family had all perished in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, who also died. The person driving the other car was the brother of the man who would later become Cobra Commander. Next, Snake-Eyes heads to Japan to join the Arashikage clan...which turns out to be the clan Storm Shadow was born into. His time there comes to an end when Zartan murders the clan head and frames Storm Shadow for it. Finally, it was later revealed that Firefly was with the Arashikage clan as well under the persona of "Faceless Master". Out of all the most enduring villains that only leaves Major Bludd with no ties to Snake-Eyes.* Of the three main characters and two main recurring characters of ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'', only the recurring character Gustavo Garian (the only one whose debut included his OriginStory) doesn't have this, expanding on many {{Noodle Incident}}s:** It took years for Diabolik's past to be revealed: he was an orphan who didn't know his real name and was raised on an island of only thieves, where he learned the trade and invented LatexPerfection before having to kill his father figure King (who baptized him Diabolik, as it's the name of a panther that had nearly killed King years before) when he decided to have him tell the formula of the masks and then kill him. Then we discovered what he did between his escape from King's Island and his arrival in Clerville, explaining that he learned part of his trade and to be paranoid in another place, [[spoiler: where he also replaced Walter Dorian, a rich arts smuggler identical to Diabolik whose identity was used by our protagonist before being outed as Diabolik]]. Then we discovered what happened to him as he settled in Clerville before the series. Then we discovered what happened between the first and the story of the series. ''Then'' we discover a few facts about Diabolik's past on King's Island. And WordOfGod says there are still tales to tell about his past, including ''his real identity'' (King has hidden documents revealing it in an extremely resistant time capsule hidden somewhere);** When she appears, Eva Kant is immediately stated to have acquired her last name by marriage to a man who died devoured by a panther (an accident, Eva explains), and that she spent most of her money to ward off blackmailers. A later story explains she married her husband because he was ''[[{{Squick}} her uncle]]'' and she wanted to take back her last name, and that she was innocent of what she had been blackmailed for. Then a later story explains exactly how all of that happened, that she had paid off the blackmailers because she had still been their accomplice (so they ''did'' have some dirt on her, only less than what they believed), and that the panther killing her husband being explained as an accident was her proving herself the greatest DeadpanSnarker of the series: [[spoiler: her husband had set the panther on her to try and kill her, but Eva set the beast on him ''by accident'']];** Ginko's past was alluded to in multiple {{Noodle Incident}}s, before being explained in the story ''Ginko: Before Diabolik''. Then a previously unknown part was told in a following story, enacting this trope but still giving him the less complicated past of the main characters;** Altea first appears as a liberal duchess in Benglait, a kingdom on the verge of the revolution. After the revolution it's discovered her mother is from Clerville, and she still has some properties there. Later it's discovered she became a duchess by marriage, and she's the daughter of an admiral. Then it's discovered her late husband, who had died attacked by a shark, was on the first line in the battle against a terrorist organization [[spoiler: that he actually controlled to start a civil war, and he faked his death to avoid being exposed]].* ''ComicBook/BigTroubleInLittleChina'' likes to talk about all the previous Mrs. Burtons. It turns out Jack has had run-ins with the occult before, and just never caught on.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]* Lampshaded in ''Film/MacGruber''. When [=MacGruber=] is introduced, we are told of his many tours of duty in pretty much every branch of the military. Many would be impossible, because they occur at the same time or the war was simply too short to accommodate all of them. [=MacGruber=] would have to be a hundred-year-old man with a time machine to squeeze them all in.* The Moustache in Irma La Douce has a remarkable resume. But that's another story....[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', [[spoiler: Domovoi]] Butler has been hinted to have had an. . . ''interesting'' job history before taking up as Artemis's bodyguard.* Nathan Brazil, the guardian of the Well of Souls from Creator/JackChalker's ''Literature/WellWorld'' saga. Sort of inevitable considering he's rebooted the universe (and subsequently relived the whole course of all human history) at least ''five times''. (Or so he says, he's also an UnreliableNarrator.)* In the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, Sister Nicci originally had little background besides being one of the Sisters of the Light and [[spoiler: secretly being aligned with the Keeper of the Underworld.]] However, starting in ''Faith of the Fallen'', her complex past is delved into during chapters from her point of view.* Faolan from Creator/JulietMarillier's ''Literature/TheBrideiChronicles''. In the first book, he's a spy and bodyguard with a MysteriousPast. In the second and third books, we find out that he [[spoiler:started out as a bard in Ireland, then became an assassin, then was in prison for awhile, then somehow made his way to Scotland and made a career there.]] Despite all that, he's still in his 20s. There doesn't seem to have been time for him to actually do everything he's supposed to have done, particularly given the time it must have taken for a member of an enemy tribe to win the trust of the Priteni king.* "Literature/TheWheelOfTime". A late-arrival character Androl Genhald has had a remarkably varied past. So far as we know, he's fought in a minor rebellion, sailed two seas, been apprenticed to a leatherworker AND a wisewoman (usually reserved for women), worked as a farmer and a surveyor, and was trained as a swordsman. All of this in the thirty years before joining the Black Tower. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. Justified with Angel and Spike, since they are centuries-old vampires. Angelus grumbles that Angel's was mostly puppy rescues and Manilow concerts. We learn that Spike's entire persona is a fabrication by himself. "Spike" who used to go by "William the Bloody" was William Pratt, a wimpy poet who got the first nickname because of his "bloody awful poetry" and was considered the runt of his original pack when he was first turned. His current name possibly originates from another critic saying his poetry is as painful as driving a railroad spike through your head. Later he genuinely made a name for himself as a badass by killing two slayers.* Most of the characters in ''Series/{{Lost}}'' are like that now. For example, Locke's time in a hippie commune was never mentioned before or since in the series. This is being somewhat fixed in the fourth season by giving the main characters [[FlashForward Flash Forwards]] instead of [[FlashBack Flash Backs]].* On ''Series/TwinPeaks'', as Laura Palmer's past is revealed episode by episode, we learn she's been quite the busy girl. She tutored Josie Packard in English, tutored Johnny Horne, worked at the perfume counter in Horne's department store, worked as [[spoiler:a private escort and as a prostitute at One Eyed Jack's]], and also delivered food for Meals on Wheels. Still she had time to juggle two boyfriends, [[spoiler:feed her cocaine habit, and maintain two diaries (a public one and a secret one), all while dealing with major problems at home]].* ''Series/QuantumLeap'' is rife with this.** Al has led a storied life before becoming the main character's [[MissionControl Holographic Sidekick]]. He ran away from the orphanage he lived in to join the Circus, traveled with a Pool master, boxed semi-pro, flew for the Navy the Cuban Missile Crisis and then Vietnam, was a POW, was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize photo, attended MIT, marched in the 60s, became an Astronaut, was promoted to Rear Admiral, has been married 5 times (between countless liaisons), was acquitted of murder, speaks Italian, and is a great cook.** Sam, on the other hand, just studied to an unholy degree. He speaks 7 languages, has 7 doctorates (including his MD), has a Nobel Prize, played piano at Carnegie Hall, sings, dances, has a photographic memory, went to MIT at 15, won the big game in high school (apparently at 14), grew up on a farm, Studied Tae Kwon Do, invented a time machine, and is also a good cook.* Howard Moon is supposed to be like this in the Crack Fox episode of ''Series/TheMightyBoosh''.* And then there was "Bon Chance Louie", proprietor of the Gold Monkey Bar in ''Series/TalesOfTheGoldMonkey'', who apparently had been everywhere and done everything -- including being part of Mallory's expedition, in his last, unsuccessful, attempt to climb Mt. Everest, and nearly being guillotined.* Phoebe from ''Series/{{Friends}}'' often makes passing allusions to unusual jobs or situations she was involved in before the series started, although she does have an ordinary backstory as well. And as she's a firm believer in reincarnation, there was at least one flashback scene to Phoebe in a previous life. Whether this is supposed to be purely imaginary is, one supposes, left to the viewer. Lampshaded once when she makes one such reference to her past, gets a lot of blank looks, smiles and says "There's so much you don't know"* Wilson W. Wilson, on ''Series/HomeImprovement'', speaks multiple languages, has been to dozens of countries, has studied several esoteric religions and philosophies, and engages in such myriad hobbies as wine-tasting, ant farming, and fire walking. He is revealed in-universe to be a retired intelligence operative, which would make for an eclectic past.* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' really gropes when it tries to come up with what Rangers returning for team-up episodes have been doing since they were last seen. Being a member of the original team, after fifteen years on and off of the screen, Tommy Oliver has been a martial artist, a football player, a race car driver, a paleontologist, a MadScientist (seriously!), a high school science teacher, and highly involved in Ranger-ness behind the scenes while between power sources, having made contact with ''every'' team even if they were based in space, just visiting from a lot more than TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, etc. If there's anything "Dr. O" has not been, he ''will'' have by the next anniversary teamup to bring him back.* Shawn Spencer of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' travelled a lot and had 57 jobs prior to opening the titular private detective agency.* Slowly revealing the history of the Doctor and his people from ''Series/DoctorWho'' in bits and pieces over multiple decades and production teams has led to a less than clear vision of his past. It gets even worse when you bring the ExpandedUniverse into it. Of course, this sort of thing is pretty much an occupational hazard once you make it past 500. Which he ''has''. * Jack Harkness from ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' started that series with his backstory from ''Doctor Who'' as a Time Agency agent who became a time-traveling con man after two years' worth of memories were swiped, and then was made immortal, and then travelled back in time, overshot his destination, and got stuck on TheSlowPath, which forced him to live through WWII twice - which became three times by the end of the first series of ''Torchwood''. It also doesn't help that there was a {{Flashback}} to Jack's time as a teenager in which we learn valuable things, but [[TheUnreveal not his real name.]]* ''Series/MacGyver'' has a college degree in physics, comprehensive knowledge of mechanics, chemistry, and any other specialty required by a given plot, worked as a deck hand on a tramp steamer, was a bomb disposal expert for the Special Forces in Vietnam, was a professional racing car driver, played Olympic-calibre ice hockey but had a TragicAccident that kept him out of the Olympics, worked as an apprentice and assistant to a noted archaeologist (played by {{BRIAN BLESSED}}), trained as a pilot, worked as a backwoodsman in the Rockies, a lumberjack and a taxi driver, all before becoming a secret agent. Adding to the confusion, the first and second seasons gave two incompatible versions of his initial meeting with Pete Thornton. Furthermore, [[spoiler:[[LastEpisodeNewCharacter the final episode]] reveals he has a long-lost son.]]* This gets really excessive for the title character in the second season of ''Series/{{Angel}}''. While some of the things are understandable in that he has been a vampire for 200 years, and has had a soul for a hundred years, sometimes you wonder exactly what is consistent with his character. The best example is the fourth season, ''Orpheus'', which had a type of ItsAWonderfulPlot that actually explained some of what was going through his mind.* The "somewhat eponymous" main character of ''Series/NewAmsterdam'', as a consequence of his immortality. In the last 400 years he's been a cop, a lawyer, a soldier, a sailor, a hobo, a conman, a carriage rider, etc.* Before meeting Hercules, ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' has been an Amazon, Valkyrie, mother, student of a Chinese mystic (in China, no less), lover of Caesar, and warlord. She has travelled most of the known world, including Scandinavia, northern Africa, and all of Asia. It's a wonder she never found herself in the New World.* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': Robert Goren knows everything.* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', they've somehow managed to shoehorn in a ''third'' dark past for Angela, who seems to switch secret conspiracies every few years. Said dark past also involves Chandra Suresh, someone who positively ''couldn't'' be part of any of these conspiracies (he wasn't even sure evolved abilities existed until he was killed by someone with powers) but apparently now was part of one all along.* This trope is the entire premise behind the title character of ''Series/ThePretender''.* ''Series/{{Greek}}'' has this in all of Cappie's majors (and one-time photography minor). Of course, he could be lying, but that's part of Cappie's mystery (just like his [[NoNameGiven name]]...)* ''Series/{{Highlander}}'': Duncan [=MacLeod=] has done just about everything imaginable, and lived in (or at least visited) virtually every culture on Earth, in the course of flashbacks doled out throughout the series. Justified to some extent due to the fact that he's over 400 years old. Several of the other characters have similarly varied pasts, which is also justified because they're usually even older than [=MacLeod=]. For example, his drinking buddy Hugh Fitzcairn is 800 years old, his on-and-off girlfriend Amanda is nearly 1200, and Methos is so old that even most immortals think he's a myth; he says his earliest memories date back to 5500 years ago, but he was already an adult and had already experienced his first death (activating his immortality) before that point.* Larry, Darryl, and Darryl from ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' had an extremely packed past.* Despite being an utter failure at almost 40, Johnny Drama on ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' has a story about anyone and everyone in show business, just because he's been around so long. Oddly, his own brother and best friends have never heard most of these stories before.* Scott Sherwood of ''Series/RememberWENN'' had one of these.* Hilda, Zelda, and cat Salem of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' are centuries-old witches who have apparently screwed every historically famous person ever and were everywhere for everything that has ever happened in history. Zelda dated Columbus. Hilda dated Shakespeare and Mercury, the Roman messenger God. Also, Salem ''totally'' coined the phrase "let me have liberty or let me have death." Also, in one episode Sabrina mentions that her Aunt Irma didn't like some guy named Ben so she turned him into the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament commonly known as "Big Ben".* Kenneth from ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has been [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld alive forever]]. We think.* Jamie and Adam from ''Series/MythBusters'' love playing with this. For an example, see the above quote. A lot of it is for humor, but much is also true - for instance, Jamie once ran a pet shop, used to give diving lessons, and turns out to be qualified for many odd tasks that crop up in the course of mythbusting work.* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In order for all of the things in Aaron Hotchner's past to be true, he had to have gone to college at 13. Seriously, the guy was an established prosecutor before joining the BAU and then working his way up to Lead Profiler, which he's been for about five years... yet he's barely 45.** Yet he's nothing compared to [[TVGenius Reid]]...who really ''did'' graduate high school as a twelve-year-old and ''still'' doesn't have enough time in life for all the things he's supposedly done. * ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':** Former Cardassian spy-turned tailor Elim Garak always adds more details to his past. Played with in that you can never know for sure if '''any''' of his supposed backstory is true, since ThatLiarLies. His backstory was finally revealed in a ''thick'' book, ''[[Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineAStitchInTime A Stitch in Time]]'', written by the actor who portrayed him.** Whenever the writers wanted Dax to have an unusual skill or know something unexpected, they just attributed it to one of her past hosts. Given that there were seven such prior hosts, adding up to over 350 years of experience, this was reasonable enough. One extreme example was [[spoiler:Ezri Dax, who has no police or security training whatsoever, being the best-suited to stop a serial killer on the station...because one of the previous Dax hosts ''was'' a serial killer. (And in fairness, the current host is a trained psychiatrist, giving her more than just the past host's life experiences to use in profiling a serial killer.) And even ''that'' was expanded from a previous episode where that particular host killed just one person.]].** O'Brien ran into this twice. On TNG, where he was simply the most prominent recurring crewman, he was used a few times when they wanted a known character to add a personal touch to the plot, but didn't want to invest the main characters in it. His past fighting Cardassians with Captain Maxwell being the best example. Also, for several years he wore the rank insignia of a Lieutenant ("Chief" was presumed to be just a shortening of his job title), but he was {{retcon}}ned into being a Senior Chief Petty Officer and thus one of the very few named enlisted personnel in the entire franchise. Then when he moved to ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space 9]]'' as a main character, expanding his past became a matter of necessity.* ''Series/JustShootMe'': Nina van Horn is a former supermodel, who back in TheSeventies ventured into acting and singing careers. She has also apparently slept with every male celebrity she's ever met, has converted back and forth to various religions, and has even been brainwashed several times into joining cults.* Happened to the character of Venus Flytrap on ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati''. He got so many contradictory backstories (he was a former soldier, a former teacher, or else a very experienced DJ from New Orleans) that finally they had to make an episode to reconcile the inconsistencies, establishing that he and Andy had simply lied when they said he was an experienced DJ in the first episode.* During the first season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', Jack Bauer is shown to be a relatively competent (and unassuming) government agent with some special ops training. Subsequent seasons, ExpandedUniverse tie-in's and supplemental books show that he worked for the LAPD's SWAT Team, Delta Force and the CIA, worked extensive field cases that called on him to do extraordinary feats, indirectly worked for/met with five of the series' major villains (including two members of his own family) years before they would put their plans to overthrow the U.S. into motion, sold out several of his CTU colleagues when they accepted bribes, went undercover in several different gangs and cartels and rescued his wife from a BigBad who planned to massacre her and several other civilians on live television.* Nessa from the British comedy ''Series/{{Gavin and Stacey}}'' has a ridiculously impressive and convoluted past, revealed in brief reminiscences and anecdotes, although how much of this history is true is debatable - she could be making it all up for all we know, though the other Barry characters will often back her up and are sometimes even involved. Many of the stories she recounts are of bizarre sexual liaisons with high-profile celebrities, made all the more hilarious by her dead-pan delivery of these lewd stories. Hilariously, politician John Prescott showed up at her wedding as one of her exes, meaning at least one of her stories is true.* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' likes this trope in all its versions. Enough past is revealed to flesh out a character, and them more and more is revealed as things progress. Listing all the stuff associated with the main characters could be a page in itself.* Many an episode of ''Series/RemingtonSteele'' revolved around someone from the main character's past coming around to reveal another piece. He's known to have been a thief, con man, and boxer. Along the way, he picked up numerous skills and bits of information.* Blair Sandburg in ''Series/TheSentinel'' has some odd skills learned on summer jobs, or acquired from his free-spirited mother's various lovers, or picked up in his anthropological/archaeological studies. [[/folder]]

[[folder: TabletopGames]]* Pretty much every game-product or novel author who wrote about ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'''s Strahd von Zarovich in the 2E era has added something to his past. Partially justified, in that he's been a vampire for centuries; however, the number of subplots that got crammed into the last year or so of his ''mortal'' life is a bit over-the-top.* ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' has the Universal Contact, Universal Profession, Universal Scholar, and Universal Translator perks for just this sort of occasion. The players can use these perks to basically have friends everywhere, to have done everything, to have learned everything, and to speak all the languages they might happen to find a need for. These abilities are prohibitively expensive, though, so most characters only have one if they have any at all.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* Shiro of ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' literally has an expansion pack past. Introduced in ''Factions'', we learn that [[spoiler:he killed the emperor of Cantha because a fortune teller told him that the emperor would try to assassinate him.]] Nothing more is said about this in the game, and he shares the fate of every BigBad. But in the next expansion, ''Nightfall'', we learn that [[spoiler:the fortune teller was a minion of Abaddon, tricking Shiro into killing the emperor.]]* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' seems to cram their lead characters with all sorts of talents for their young ages (everyone is in their 20s), which even leads into some research failure (such as saying Jill was a member of Delta Force when, in fact, they don't accept women). This could be explained by the Resident Evil universe just being a bit less sexist, but as the developers have never said anything about that, it is likely just some standard research fail.* The Boss in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' reveals her past, claiming she's never talked this much about herself before. But in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'', both Strangelove and EVA reveal all kinds of juicy details about top-secret missions she'd been on in between (and in one case, instead of) the missions she'd told Snake about.* In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, this happens with just about every flashback case. Through them, we learn about Mia's first case, how she and Phoenix met, [[spoiler:her and Phoenix's lovers (who showed up in present-day cases),]] Edgeworth's first prosecution case (against Mia, no less), Edgeworth's meeting of Kay and Detective Gumshoe, and his initial involvement in the KG-8 case.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]* Candy in ''Webcomic/DragonMango'' is a [[SummonMagic Caller]]. But as she frequently points out, before she decided to become a Caller, she studied something else. What that something else is depends on what's currently useful for the plot. That includes martial arts, lockpicking, carpentry, weight training, and a few other jobs. She's usually not particularly good at the skills, but it's usually enough for the situation.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]* Etzel von Gerhart of ''ShadowhunterPeril'' isn't too great at keeping his former life as a mercenary and assassin under wraps.* Roleplay/MSFHighForum: Israfel and Seram definitely qualify, along with Rei. Less common now, but the backgrounds for a few chars were pretty light. Thus, any information came across as this.** Jax's story is slowly unfolding, starting with a movie about a girl...** Almost inevitable as characters, who are (ostensibly) full-fledged people enter the game with a few paragraphs describing the character and his or her past.** Also, in a few cases of cases (Daniel/Danielle, Zade), the character's homeworld is so heavily fleshed out that the character almost seems to be the backdrop to the homeworld, rather than the other way around.*** Danielle's home country is loosely based on Vox Libertatem, her creator MBTC's Nation State.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'':** Jim from, as a RunningGag, often tangentially mentions being involved in all sorts of different odd jobs (space program test subject, special forces, something about submarines, something else about professional skateboarding, etc.) that he would [[NoodleIncident "rather not talk about"]].** Played straighter with Aelita, who was first described as an AI before it was revealed in Season 2 she was human, and the daughter of the creator of Lyoko. Too little is known of her past to make the rare flashbacks yet contradictory, though.* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':** Played for laughs with the numerous backstories assigned to Grandpa. Among other things, he spent 40 years as the night watchman at a cranberry silo, lived in the Statue of Liberty's head as a child, earned a commission as an under-aged officer in [[UsefulNotes/WW1 World War 1]] (so under-aged that he still took naps and cried) worked as a strikebreaker during the Depression, fought in World War II as an Army infantryman in Europe, Piloted bombers in the Pacific, and so on. However, despite small hints that some of this is probably true, it's usually chalked up to his delusional senility.** A more controversial example would be the episode "That 90's Show", which is half sliding timescale, and half Homer-being-aged-up-from-34-to-38. Set during the period of Marge and Homer's relationship after they had graduated high school but before Bart was conceived/their shotgun marriage, it mainly expanded upon Marge's background by revealing that she was a college graduate and that Homer spend his years after high school as a member of both an R&B boyband (based on Color Me Bad) and a grunge rock group (that was part Nirvana and part Bush), that made him a household name. The fact that logically this occurs ''after'' he became world famous for singing barbershop in 1986, as shown in a flashback episode which showed him as older and already married with kids, is probably responsible for most of this controversy.* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' also plays this trope straight, and usually for laughs, mainly due to its fondness for using quick, random flashbacks for jokes. It doesn't just apply to all the random jobs and activities characters have performed in the past (namely Peter, Brian, and Stewie), but also to how some of the characters met each other. Multiple flashbacks have happened which show Peter meeting Lois, Peter meeting Brian, or Peter meeting Cleveland and/or Quagmire.* ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' exaggerated this for a running gag, as the titular character's super-competent sidekick, Cornfed Pig, always appeared to have expertise and an extensive background in any task at hand. The trope was subverted to an extent when it was revealed that in all of Cornfed's many adventures, he had never successfully lost his virginity, and a LampshadeHanging for Cornfed's ridiculous past was attempted, perhaps inadvertently, by showing at least three different flashback scenarios at different times in the series of how he came to be friends with Duckman.* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' was a pretty good example of this trope, what with the extensive and varied training that Bruce had undergone in the past -- everything from samurai training to magic lessons.** Exactly how Bruce planned it. Besides, you can do card tricks in Japan.* Roger the Alien from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' originally had a two-sentence origin: He was an alien being held at Area 51 who saved Stan's life. To repay him, Stan lets him live in his house. Over time, though Roger's past has been much more colorful -- in one episode it was revealed that he's actually been on Earth for over sixty years (he was the alien who crashed in Roswell) and stories of his past exploits keep popping up. Like how during the 70's, he was a millionaire music producer who "invented" disco by exploiting a StableTimeLoop, then lost everything when disco died. Or that he's inexplicably an Olympic-class figure skater. Or that he's inadvertently responsible for the death of Biggie Smalls. Or that he fought in the Vietnam War, against the Americans. And he invented MDMA.* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', almost every episode featuring [[BigBad Demona]] delved further into her complex backstory.* In the ''WesternAnimation/GeneratorRex'' episode ''A Brief History of Time'', [[BigBad Van Kleis]] ends up thousands of years in the past. The episode shows several scenes and montages of him putting himself in suspended animation and waking up some time later. During those waking periods, he was shown being an adviser to the Egyptian Pharoahs, a Roman Gladiator, a Viking warrior, a Samurai and about a thousand other things that make no sense unless for some reason his sarcophagus was constantly being shipped thousands of miles while he was in it.* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Robert Jebediah "Granddad" Freeman has this in spades. The backstory of the family has them coming from Chicago, and one season one episode clarifies that, having him live in the same neighborhood as fellow Tuskegee Airman pilot Moe Jackson after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Other instances, however, have him living in the segregated south, both when he was very little (his brief flashback about "a funny lynching story"), and when he was a full-grown adult, placing him in general civil rights marches. In what turned out to be AllJustADream of Huey's, he was also ''Rosa Parks' accomplice on the bus'', though his attempts at defying segregation were ignored in that instance.[[/folder]]